Responding to Generative AI
The headlines are rife with Artificial Intelligence updates. Some of the articles spell out concerns and fears. Justified concerns if you have ever seen any number of films set in a dystopian future. Others celebrate our inevitable march towards an all knowing Artificial Intelligence (AI). Most miss the nuance of what is general AI, compared to the demonstrated practical applications to date. All the exhibitions remain far from Artificial General Intelligence.
B-Corps
Businesses do not have a responsibility to fulfill core human principles of belonging, purpose, community, and ritual. When they try to, the outcome is a simulacra of the real thing. Often cold, plastic, and disposable. Their goal is to make money, for their shareholders, and maybe after the fact look after their stakeholders. But what if their was a corporate structure that worked differently? A way of existing for or co-existing with the mission to fulfill larger human objectives, beyond what is socially of the moment.
Parental Leave
I can tell you that the three plus months were not enough. Expanding your family is hopefully an intentional event, and that change is fraught with complexities; both known and unknown. Getting an ample window of time to bond, settle, and form routines is a benefit that should be made a federal mandate and not just a luxury for tech workers.
Eudaemonia Machine
I took on a long delayed challenge and wrote a novella during the quiet and solitude that the early days of the pandemic. By my estimation it’s nothing worth reading and unless I put serious effort into revisions, it won’t be shared more broadly. In the year that followed I also wrote a screen play inspired by a dream that consumed me one night. These creative outpourings were for me and me only. Long solitary swims out into a sea of imagination and wonder. The very doing was enough. I had reached a state of Eudaemonia (or Eudaimonia). The common link between these swells of productivity was space.
Technological Ghosts
I first thought about the idea of digital ghosts while listening to a podcast in which one of the guests on the show mentioned getting a voicemail from a deceased family member after that person died. The message had apparently been delayed by cellular network issues. That eery idea got me thinking about digital ghosts. The pictures, text messages, voicemails, documents, and more that could theoretically live on in perpetuity. I started to look around our house hunting down the sarcophaguses of the digital echos we have created. As I have been cultivating a minimalist practice over the years, I had already whittled down what little remained to a few devices. An external hard drive here and one or two other insignificant devices were all I could find.
The Freedom of Constraints
Some constraints are the result of our respective socio-economic situations. Others come from the compounding of unfortunate circumstances or bad decisions. And yet others come from self selection. The last is my favorite. The conscious creation of boundaries to set constraints in a given situation. I call it addition through subtraction.
My Spirituality
To be clear, I am not religious. From the earliest age I needed too much empirical proof to make a leap of faith. I also could not accept the idea that any of my friends and family would be "excluded" in an afterlife because we did not share the same belief structure. If they are in fact good people, what God would no want them in their company? This question made me think that belief was asking me to make a choice between ideology and the people closest to me. I could not reconcile that and thus moved away from any religiosity.
Deliberate Practice
The deliberate practitioner won’t just rely on one source for skill development. You have to learn across multiple mediums. Go out and read on the history of your interest, listen to podcasts, and watch how-to tutorials from masters.
Music Discovery
I am an audiophile but there are no more record stores. I don’t listen to the radio. I don’t drive a lot and do not want to give that little bit of time away to shock jocks and advertising breaks. I stream what I want, when I want over the Bluetooth audio. Convenient as this approach may be, it is a double edged sword because that instant gratification can get you stuck in musical rut. I am an audiophile and I want to discover new sounds. Being stuck at home during a pandemic did nothing for that love of audio discovery.